Bradley fresh for flight to Vegas to play Portland

LAS VEGAS — Bradley gets a men’s basketball rematch Friday night against Portland, which handed the Braves one of their most disappointing nonconference losses of last season.

Those Pilots pinned a 57-55 defeat on a BU team in Vegas weary from a crushing overtime loss the night before to Virginia Tech.

The second night, Portland’s size and the Braves’ fatigue dictated the outcome.

“On the second day of tournaments, big guys don’t get any smaller, but fast guys do get tired,” said BU coach Geno Ford. “We played hard against them, but missed layups and free throws and couldn’t get anything going.”

While BU’s cast has changed quite a bit from a year ago, fatigue will not be a factor this time. Bradley is coming off a 10-day break for finals exam entering the 7 p.m. (Central time) tipoff at South Point Arena a few miles south of the Strip.

The Pilots (6-4) return their top three scorers — forwards Ryan Nicholas (13.2 ppg) and Kevin Bailey (17.6) and 6-11 center Thomas van der Mars (12.8). Nicholas, also averaging 10.1 rebounds, is one of just 21 Division I players averaging a double-double.

“Their frontcourt is carrying them,” Ford said. “Van der Mars is the most improved big guy I’ve seen all year. He basically just took up space last year. Now he’s really efficient at finishing plays with both hands. Bailey can really score in a variety of ways. And Nicholas battles like crazy. They have as good of a frontcourt as any we’ve seen all year.”

Portland is a high-scoring, uptempo team, averaging 80.2 points. A strong reflection of the Pilots’ fast pace is their average of 61 shot attempts per game combined with 25 free throws per outing.

They’ve beaten UC-Davis, Idaho, Columbia, San Jose State, Southern Utah and Portland State while losing to Oregon State, Michigan State, North Texas and most recently to Montana State.

With the Braves suffering their five losses in the last six games, Bradley has been focused on self-improvement during the break, particularly better attacking zone defenses.

“We’re not in any kind of offensive rhythm,” he said. “We’re guilty of overthinking or overanalyzing against the zone. Portland’s only shown a sprinkling of zone, but we have to assume we’ll see a lot of it because we haven’t demonstrated an ability to attack zone effectively. We have to score inside and use our athletic advantage on the perimeter. We have to finish plays or jump stop and be willing passers.”

Most of that starts with point guard Walt Lemon, whose effectiveness has taken a nosedive during the team’s skid.

In the five BU defeats, Lemon is averaging 15.8 points, but is shooting just 35 percent from the field and committing 4.2 turnovers per game.

“We’ve got to get Walt going and not put so much pressure on himself,” Ford said.

The positive side for the Braves is the zone execution in practice has improved.

“The key is to have carryover into the games,” Ford said. “When we make a mistake in practice, we can stop and correct it. It’s much more about us doing it on the fly under game pressure.

“We’ve done a lot of film stuff and are getting better in practice. But (attacking zones better) is kind of like a rumor at this point. Nobody else is seeing it.”

“From an execution standpoint, they’re the best team we’ll have played,” Ford said. “Their personnel isn’t as good as Arizona State’s. But they execute like crazy. They have seven seniors who’ve played together for four years and really know what the other guy is doing. They’re willing to sacrifice for the greater good. It’ll be a tough challenge for us.”

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or dreynolds@pjstar.com.Follow him on Twitter @davereynolds2.